Schmidt T, Riggs M W, Speights V O
Department of Pathology, Scott & White Clinic and Memorial Hospital, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, College of Medicine, Temple 76508, USA.
South Med J. 1997 Dec;90(12):1183-6. doi: 10.1097/00007611-199712000-00004.
Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) has been shown to be rapid and cost effective in the evaluation of thyroid nodules. The significance of nondiagnostic (unsatisfactory) FNAB is uncertain, however.
We reviewed 345 consecutive thyroid FNABs and identified 59 patients with initially unsatisfactory specimens. These patients had follow-up to determine whether their thyroid nodules proved to be malignant.
Three patients (5.1%) were found to have organ-confined papillary carcinoma of the thyroid, the largest tumor mass measuring 1.2 cm. Six patients (10.2%) had benign adenomas.
In most cases of initially nondiagnostic FNAB of a thyroid nodule, neoplasia is not found subsequently. A minority of cases may still harbor malignancy. None of our patients in whom repeated FNA was either nondiagnostic or suggestive of benign disease were ultimately found to have a malignancy.
